Emily McKenzie jointly with Katherine Wyatt: Understanding Ecosystem Services and a Changing Climate for Sustainable Decision Making in the Arctic

We will present case examples where information on nature and its benefits to people has been used to improve decision-making, and explore the potential for such approaches, indicators and tools to benefit the Arctic.

Nils Andreassen: Alaska, Arctic and Sustainable Development

This presentation will cover Alaska's approach to sustainable development from a couple different perspectives, a review of current activities of the Institute of the North within the Arctic Council, and thoughts about the Finnish Chairmanship's approach to the Sustainable Development Goals. Alaska's Arctic Policy and Implementation Plan are instructive in this, as are prior strategic planning sessions that have been organized within the state related to Arctic issues. The Institute of the North is involved in a number of Arctic Council projects, can report out on recent outcomes and plans related for currently managed projects. Finally, the SDGs give us all an opportunity to evaluate sustainable development in an Arctic context, using globally-agreed to metrics.

In the first brief presentation Dr. Sonja Bickford from the University of Nebraska Kearney, USA will give an overview of the University of Lapland Arctic Centre’s “Testing improvement processes of Finnish environmental impact assessments and the modes for application in arctic regions of Finland and Russia” (Arctic EIA) project. The presentation will cover the goals and background for the project as well as examples of project’s results. One of the aims of the research project was to help stakeholders, such as companies, benefit from its findings of benchmarking EIA practices in the Arctic countries – during the presentation examples from US and Sweden will be discussed.

The second half of the presentation begins with the introduction of the Finnish led Arctic Council project focusing on ‘Arctic EIA’, which is intended to span the current Finnish chairmanship of the Arctic Council (2017-2019). The project is supported by the Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) and is officially entitled Arctic EIA: Good Practice Recommendations for Environmental Impact Assessment and Public Participation in the Arctic. The project is based, in part, on the Tekes project discussed during the first half of the presentation, and also on a subsequent book on the same topic that will be briefly highlighted. The presentation will wrap up with a comparison of two very different EIA systems – Finland and Canada (Province of Alberta and Yukon Territory) – followed by examples of best practices in each of those countries.

Piper will speak about 60Hertz Microgrids, her company, and what gaps they have discovered in the market, and their approach to filling them. This allows for discussion of the larger need in the Arctic Infrastructure market broadly and barriers/possibilities for public private partnerships.In brief, their approach is to raise a capital fund, aggregate projects to achieve economies of scale, and to deploy an Operations and Maintenance network for remote operators that is supported by their software, Pinga.

Alexander Shestakov: The Arctic needs a long-term vision

The need for a long-term strategy and vision for a sustainable Arctic future.

Greenland's approach to issues like economic development, climate change issues, the Arctic's geopolitical significance, resource extraction and other pertinent issues is very much linked to its political development and its long term process of self-determination.

Our webinar will discuss a knowledge co-production process that documents and discusses current harvesting areas and seasons, cultural practices, the costs of harvesting, newly generated biological and genetic information, and the challenges for food security. We will discuss the consideration of options for sustainable commercial and subsistence fishery development in this knowledge co-production process.

Environmental changes and the pursuit of economic opportunity are changing the dynamics of international Arctic shipping – both destinational and trans-shipment. Once considered dangerous and non-commercial, Arctic shipping routes such as the Northern Sea Route and the Bering Strait are increasingly scrutinized as potential economical alternatives to some of the world’s most popular maritime passages.

10th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: global trends and challenges.

The presentation will showcase the work of UN indigenous specific mechanisms, in particular the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as global tools to achieve sustainable development and dignity for indigenous communities worldwide. It will also elaborate on the global trends and lessons learned as we move towards full implementation of the UN Declaration. Specific UN studies and experts’ advice will be mentioned along with some useful information how they can be utilized in advocacy and practical work. More specifically, this presentation will focus on some specific issues of a critical importance for indigenous peoples, including climate change, assimilation of languages, access to proper healthcare and principle of free, prior and informed consent.